Israel Conducts Public Diplomacy Campaign in NYC

Information Minister Yuli Edelstein holds public diplomacy campaign to both Jewish and non-Jewish communities in NYC.

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Hezki Baruch, New York, 23/09/11 23:46

Minister Yuli Edelstein

Israel news photo: Flash 90

Information and Diaspora Minister Yuli Edelstein arrived in New York City on Thursday, where he began an intensive public diplomacy campaign with both Jewish and non-Jewish communities around the city.

Arutz Sheva accompanied Edelstein and documented his attempts to explain Israel’s side of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Edelstein said that despite the positive speech by President Obama in the United Nations this week, Israel still has a lot of work to do to explain its position regarding the Palestinian Authority’s unilateral statehood bid and to present the real face of Israel. It is for this reason, he explained, that dialogues with non-Jews were also included in his public diplomacy campaign.

“There are about a million Jews living in New York but there are more than seven million non-Jews living in New York,” said Michael Miller, Executive VP of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.

Miller said that the discussions are aimed “to show that Israel is interested in dialogue, is interested in conversation and is not interested in unilateral moves as we’re seeing from the Palestinian Authority with regard to their effort to establish a Palestinian state.”

He emphasized that a state cannot be established by words but rather by deeds, and especially through negotiations.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)